CHINA — Police recently arrested a China man who allegedly kicked two state troopers and bit another after he stopped to demand to know why authorities had pulled another driver over in a traffic stop.

Brent Allen Elisens Photo courtesy of Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office

Brent Allen Elisens, 34, had similarly stopped to inquire what police in the region were doing at other traffic stops of other drivers in recent weeks and had been warned, authorities said. But Elisens had not been arrested or charged for obstructing government administration in those cases.

Trooper Shawn Porter, who works for the commercial vehicle enforcement unit, had a truck driver pulled over in a stop on Route 3 in China near Greg’s Restaurant on Wednesday when Elisens pulled his car over and got out. Lt. Patrick Hood, a Maine State Police troop commander, said Elisens started asking what Porter was doing and why he pulled the truck driver over.

“He shows up, unknown to the trooper, jumps out of his car and starts asking what (Porter) is doing, why he’s there, and the trooper has no idea who he is or his purpose, and knows he’s not attached to the traffic stop,” Hood said.

Porter, according to an affidavit filed at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta, told Elisens it was none of his business and he needed to leave. He initially declined but, after a game warden also responded to the scene, Elisens left but “circled the block several times.”

Porter ran his license plate and discovered who Elisens was.

Hood said the man was known to police following similar interactions over the last four to six weeks, including with other state police and sheriff’s deputies in Kennebec and Waldo counties. They had warned him several times that what he was doing constituted the charge of obstructing government administration. Hood said obstructing government administration is illegal based on the concern that someone interfering in police business takes the attention of police away from what they’re doing. He said usually suspects of it are simply given a warning, as long as they leave the scene.

However, Elisens returned to the traffic stop in China, about 15 minutes later after the traffic stop had ended but while Porter was still there. By then, police had determined that if Elisens inserted himself into police business again that day they would arrest him.

Porter’s affidavit states “Elisens pulled up next to me and looked extremely upset.” Porter said he advised Elisens he was under arrest and had him exit his vehicle. When Porter told him to put his hands behind his back he allegedly started screaming that he was not going to jail. The affidavit states Elisens was told to put his hands behind his back or he would be subdued with a stun gun and he put his hands behind his back.

But police allege Elisens then kicked Porter in the chest and hands, then swung around and tried to strike him in the head.

Elisens allegedly then fled to his vehicle and, with Porter reaching into his vehicle to try to open his door, spun his tires and drove off, with Porter still in the window, until he let go of it.

By then two more state police, Sgt. GJ Neagle and Trooper Tyler Harrington, had arrived, and Elisens stopped his vehicle after only traveling a few hundred yards, Hood said.

When police tried to put Elisens in a cruiser he allegedly bit Neagle on the inside of his bicep and kicked and tried to bite Harrington, before they secured him in the vehicle. He was taken to the emergency room and then the Kennebec County jail in Augusta where, as of Friday morning, he remained in custody on $10,000 bail, according to court records.

He was charged with three counts of assault on an officer, obstructing government administration, and refusing to submit to arrest.

Police said they aren’t sure why Elisens has been questioning officers.

“Why all of a sudden he’s on our radar and finding himself needing to do this, I don’t know,” Hood said, adding that there was no way for police to know what his intentions were when he approached them.

In 2011, Brent Allen Elisens, then 24 and a resident of Norman, Oklahoma, was sentenced to serve 30 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for using a telephone to communicate a bomb threat to the Norman Police Department, according to a news release posted on the FBI’s website.